Would you take a deal with the devil? In The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue , a new novel from renowned fantasy author V.E. Schwab, a young woman bargains with her soul to live forever. The catch? She’s cursed to be forgotten by everyone she meets. The novel is Nerdette ’s November book club pick. Today, we host a spoiler-free chat with the author about the book, the many years it took her to write it and what comes next. Later this month, we’ll break it down with our group of panelists … and you...
Nov 10, 2020•21 min
Let Nerdette podcast get you ready for the weekend with a quick gut check after a long election week. Plus an interview with a great author and a new strategy for organizing your thoughts. First, we talk election distractions with Negin Farsad, comedian and host of the Fake The Nation podcast , and Clay Masters, lead political reporter for Iowa Public Radio. Then we talk with author Nick Hornby, author of many wonderful books like High Fidelity, About A Boy, and his newest novel, Just Like You ....
Nov 06, 2020•30 min
There’s an election going on! This podcast has absolutely nothing to do with it! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! It’s the podcast where we rewatch movies from 1999 and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. Today, it’s all about Election , a very dark comedy featuring Reese Witherspoon, Matthew Broderick and about 15 servings worth of cringe. Listen as Peter, Tricia and Greta compare Tracy Flick to Leslie Knope, analyze each candidate’s speech and reminisce about their ve...
Nov 03, 2020•51 min
Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation from author Anne Helen Petersen. In Can’t Even, Petersen argues that societal conditions and poor timing primed the millennial generation for burnout. Petersen points to the 2008 recession, the rise of the contract worker, the prevalence of cell phones and astronomical student loan debt as a few contribu...
Oct 30, 2020•50 min
Today's episode is all about The Blair Witch Project , a 1999 film with a $60,000 budget and three unknown actors that made over $240 million. Listen as Peter, Tricia and Greta break it down, and then join us next week for Election ... just in time for the election . And don’t forget, we want to hear from you! Join the party and send us a voice recording about any of the movies we’re featuring. Just record yourself on your phone and send the audio file to nerdetterecaps@gmail.com . See Privacy P...
Oct 28, 2020•38 min
Election Day is nearly upon us. And instead of cold-calling you and everyone you know, we’d rather invite you to consider a few important (and non-partisan!) election-related questions. Like how did we get such a strange voting system? Why do more than 40% of eligible voters stay home? And why should we care? For some answers we turned to Erin Geiger Smith, author of the new book Thank You For Voting: The Maddening, Enlightening, Inspiring Truth about Voting in America . See Privacy Policy at ht...
Oct 27, 2020•18 min
We get you ready for the weekend with movies, books and everyone’s favorite thing: a new way to categorize life experiences. Trust us! See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Oct 23, 2020•31 min
What is The Matrix ? Why, it’s a film that the matrix would make about the matrix, of course! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! It’s the podcast where we rewatch movies and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. This time around, it’s all about the films of 1999. And today, we’re breaking down The Matrix , a seminal film from the Wachowski siblings starring Keanu Reeves, Laurence Fishburne and Carrie-Anne Moss. Listen as Peter, Tricia and Greta break it down, and then join ...
Oct 21, 2020•42 min
The millennial generation came into adulthood during an American recession, an era of crushing student loan debt and the rise of temporary workers and independent contractors. Add a global pandemic to that precariousness and you’ve got a perfect recipe for burnout. Today, Greta talks with author Anne Helen Petersen about Can’t Even: How Millennials Became the Burnout Generation . It's our October pick for the Nerdette Book Club. And even if you aren't a millennial or haven't read the book, we wa...
Oct 16, 2020•26 min
Quick! Name six iconic movies that hit theaters in the year 1999. Nothing?! Ok. We'll do it for you: The Matrix The Blair Witch Project Election Boys Don't Cry 10 Things I Hate About You Office Space And the craziest thing is? That's not even the half of it ! In honor of that crazy year in movies, Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal is back again, featuring recaps and analysis of the six films listed above (as well as updates on whatever Peter was doing 21 years ago). Take a listen to the trailer, ...
Oct 14, 2020•1 min
You didn’t already know? Nerdette talked with two brand new MacArthur Fellows — also known as MacArthur “geniuses” — about the important work they’re doing and what it’s like to get that phone call. Mary L. Gray is an anthropologist and a media scholar honored for her work investigating how “labor, identity, and human rights are transformed by the digital economy.” And Damien Fair is a cognitive neuroscientist honored for his research on the developing human brain. See Privacy Policy at https://...
Oct 13, 2020•22 min
What a wild week! And to celebrate the return of another weekend, we assembled a bunch of fun people to take a look back … in a merry, pop culture kind of way, not a CAPS LOCK newsy way. To talk about the big week for movies, we called up Eliana Dockterman, who writes about movies, pop culture and feminism for Time . Then, to break down the gloriousness that is Fat Bear Week, we talked with Mike Fitz, the resident naturalist at explore.org . And for all the rest, we hung out with two of our favo...
Oct 09, 2020•28 min
The seasons are changing but the novel coronavirus is still with us. And that’s left us with a lot of questions about how to safely socialize with friends and family when the weather makes small outdoor gatherings less viable. So we called up Dr. Emily Landon, an epidemiologist and infectious disease specialist at the University of Chicago . (She also gave Nerdette listeners some therapeutic advice about the pandemic back in June.) And now that autumn is upon us, Landon explains how we might app...
Oct 02, 2020•20 min
Either Peter really hates the 1991 film Hook or he’s suffering from some serious Peter Pan envy … or maybe both! Welcome to a special bonus episode of Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! his week it’s all about Steven Spielberg’s Peter Pan sequel , starring Dustin Hoffman as the titular captain, Robin Williams as an adult Peter Pan and Julia Roberts as Tinker Bell. Listen as Peter explains why he thinks Hook is Spielberg’s worst film, hear Tricia defend it to the death and see Greta play arbiter ...
Sep 30, 2020•46 min
You know Gillian Flynn as the genre-redefining writer behind Gone Girl , both the 2012 novel and the 2014 movie adaptation starring Rosamund Pike and Ben Affleck. Since the success of Gone Girl , Flynn has written only for the screen, including the 2018 movie Widows and the HBO series Sharp Objects. Out now on Amazon Prime, Utopia is Flynn’s latest work, based on a 2013 BBC show of the same name. Greta talks with Flynn about Utopia, Gone Girl and what’s next. See Privacy Policy at https://art19....
Sep 29, 2020•22 min
Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Maaza Mengiste’s historical novel The Shadow King . It’s based on the true story of the Italian invasion of Ethiopia in the mid-1930s. Against Italian Prime Minister Benito Musolinni’s technologically-advanced army, the citizens of feudal Ethiopia didn’t seem to have a chance. But they eventually overcame— and they had the help of a number of forgotten female f...
Sep 25, 2020•41 min
“I’m not woke. I’m aware.” That’s the answer Chicago comedian T. Murph gives when he’s asked about his relationship to the title of Woke , a new series that dropped on Hulu earlier this month. T. Murph plays the role of Clovis, friend and roommate of Keef, the show’s protagonist (played by Lamorne Morris), who tries to avoid controversy in his work until the world forces him to do otherwise. Greta talks with T. Murph about what being woke means to him, if he moves through the world like his char...
Sep 22, 2020•22 min
The Bechdel test asks a simple question: Does a work of fiction have two named female characters who talk to each other about something other than a man? Today we talk with Sarah Kozloff, who was a film professor at Vassar College when she learned that The Lord of The Rings movies fail the Bechdel test. That inspired her to write The Nine Realms , a series of fantasy novels about a young princess who must grow up and fight her way back to the throne. Greta talks with Sarah about the books, her c...
Sep 18, 2020•18 min
Six weeks of movie recaps and there still seems to be no sign of intelligent life anywhere. This week it’s all about the 1995 Pixar classic Toy Story, starring Tom Hanks, Tim Allen and all of our collective childhood memories. Listen as Peter, Tricia and Greta recall the moments that made them weep, search for hidden religious analogs and consider the system of ethics in the 'Toy Story' universe . See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/...
Sep 16, 2020•45 min
Like it or not these seasons are a changing! And that means right now is a great opportunity to embrace flavors from late summer and early fall, and to make a chocolate zucchini cake! We talk with baker and cookbook author Shauna Sever — all about all the spices you should have, sourdoughs you should start, and pies you should scarf down immediately. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Sep 15, 2020•21 min
While researching for her novel, author Maaza Mengiste says she came across a New York Times article from 1935 that described a woman leading an army of 2,000 men into victory. She was shocked. Why had she never heard about this female wartime hero? “It struck me,” Mengiste tells Nerdette. “If there’s one, there’s two. If there’s two, there’s five.” We talk to Mengiste about her novel, The Shadow King, which is the Nerdette Book Club’s September pick. Listen to this spoiler-free convo, then come...
Sep 11, 2020•22 min
The $5 milkshake. Once a shocking, exorbitant example of the scourge of inflation. Now, a hot bargain that shouldn’t be missed! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal ! It’s the podcast where we rewatch movies of the ‘90s and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. Episode 5 is all about 1994’s Pulp Fiction, starring John Travolta, Uma Thurman, Samuel L. Jackson and Bruce Willis. Listen to this conversation with Peter Sagal, Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen, then join us next week f...
Sep 09, 2020•56 min
Of course it's not too early to talk about fall books! We got ahold of NPR books editor Barrie Hardymon to get recommendations for some great autumn reads. Find the full list of recommendations at www.wbez.org/nerdette. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info .
Sep 04, 2020•21 min
Does Dazed and Confused have a plot? Barely! Does that matter? To some people, yes! This week's recap is all about 1993’s Dazed and Confused , starring young versions of Matthew McConaughey, Parker Posey, Ben Affleck and Anthony Rapp. It’s also an early film from director Richard Linklater, who went on to make critically-acclaimed movies like Before Sunset, Boyhood and A Scanner Darkly . Listen to this conversation with Peter, Tricia and Greta, then join us next week for our discussion of Pulp F...
Sep 02, 2020•43 min
When considering some of the milestone moments in feminist history, you might think about the Seneca Falls Conference of 1848, the passage of the 19th Amendment in 1920 or the Civil Rights Act of 1964. But the 1990s? “This was actually one of the most pivotal decades, I believe, for feminist history.” We talk with Lisa Levenstein, the Director of the Women's, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program at UNC Greensboro and the author of They Didn't See Us Coming: The Hidden History of Feminism in the...
Sep 01, 2020•19 min
Welcome to the Nerdette Book Club! Each month, we read a book and chat about it with a rotating group of panelists. This month’s pick is Sameer Pandya’s debut novel Members Only . It takes place over the course of one very intense week in the life of Raj, a middle-aged Indian-American anthropology professor. When he’s asked to help his tennis club interview potential new members, he’s thrilled by the opportunity to help diversify his tennis partners. But he makes a huge gaffe in front of a Black...
Aug 28, 2020•1 hr 7 min
We didn’t ask him, but I think we can say it with certainty: Peter Sagal definitely cannot dunk. Episode 3 of Nerdette Recaps features our very first sportsball movie: 1992’s White Men Can’t Jump, starring Wesley Snipes, Woody Harrelson and Rosie Perez. It’s director Ron Shelton’s followup to Bull Durham and the script might just contain more obscenities than non-obscenities. Listen to this conversation with Peter, Tricia and Greta, then join us next week for our discussion of Dazed and Confused...
Aug 26, 2020•56 min
Argonne National Laboratory is a massive research facility outside of Chicago that’s run by the U.S. Department of Energy. And this week, Nerdette hosts Tricia Bobeda and Greta Johnsen take you behind the curtain to learn about some of the innovative stuff happening there. Stuff like superbatteries, supercomputers, and questions that may never get answers This episode originally aired on August 10, 2018. See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art...
Aug 25, 2020•31 min
The optimism of one woman’s 20s meets the disappointment of her 30s in I Used To Go Here , a new film from Chicago filmmaker Kris Rey. We talked to Rey about the inspiration for the film, her recent name change from Swanberg to Rey, and what she tells young filmmakers. “Go for it,” she said. “The stakes are not that high. You can always start over.” See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info ....
Aug 21, 2020•22 min
If you’re a former fighter pilot and the world is facing annihilation at the hands of an alien species whose only motivation is permanently ending the human race, well then, who cares if you’re the president? You belong in the air, baby! Welcome back to Nerdette Recaps with Peter Sagal , the podcast where we rewatch movies of the ‘90s and dissect them like the intense nerds we are. Today is all about the 1996 blockbuster Independence Day, starring Will Smith, Jeff Goldblum, Vivica A. Fox, Bill P...
Aug 19, 2020•57 min
